Kingsport Woman Sentenced To Prison For COVID-19 Employment Tax Credit Scheme

GREENEVILLE Tenn. – A Tennessee woman was sentenced today to 50 months in prison to conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Aylissa Glidewell, 35, of Kingsport, Tennessee, conspired with others to file false tax returns seeking refunds based on the Employee Retention Credit and paid Sick and Family Leave Credit, both of which were created by Congress to aid struggling businesses during the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Glidewell and co-conspirators created phony businesses, which lacked any employees or operations, for the sole purpose of falsely claiming the credits.  Glidewell filed numerous false tax returns for those businesses and directed the tax refunds to be mailed to addresses she and co-conspirators controlled.

In total, the false returns claimed over $3.4 million in tax refunds, of which the IRS paid $1.8 million.

In addition to her prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Clifton Corker for the Eastern District of Tennessee ordered Glidewell to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $1,806,637 in restitution to the United States

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Larry J. Wszalek of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation and the United States Secret Service investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Zachary A. Cobb of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mac Heavener and Ryan Blackwell of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.

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